The over 60-day lockdown has created its own miseries. While the salaried middle class may not face the brunt of the lockdown other than the inconvenience of not meeting up with their social peers, the near 80% of population in this country are staring at a bleak future. In Meghalaya, the closure of the biggest market –Iewduh for two whole months has sent many families into penury. We don’t have the big picture about the economic costs of locking down the country for two months as yet. But once a clear picture emerges it will be a massive challenge for any Government to tackle. The Rs 20 lakh crore rehabilitation package announced by the Centre when divided among the states in order of their population and the losses sustained is a very thin spread. When the Prime Minister used the word atma-nirbhar (self-reliance) in his address to the nation, he was perhaps conveying to the states that they should find their own means of reviving the economy and that the Centre would have its own priorities of looking at the bigger manufacturing sectors.
True the states have been responsibly executing their mandates in combating Covid19 but there’s a limit to how much resources they can cough up to kick-start the economy with also having to provide jobs for migrant workers that have recently returned and are still returning in hordes. The Government of Meghalaya is planning to revive tourism where precautions of social distancing et al will be put in place. People in the tourism sector are expected to put their heads together to come up with a viable proposition for the Government to act as facilitator.
The lockdown of major markets will have to now be relaxed with due precautions. In fact, if the objective of the Government is to prevent crowding then it is prudent to open up the commercial establishments. It is high time for wholesale markets to start functioning on a daily basis and for the retail traders also to start their regular businesses. People have to find their feet now or never. Every commercial establishment relies on a host of support systems each of which employs its set of workers, who have now been laid off. Reopening of commercial establishment means re-employing people. However, relaxation in economic activities does not mean a relaxation of the rules governing hygiene, donning masks and maintaining social distancing. These are imperatives we have to learn to live with. To decongest Iewduh, Government needs to employ new strategies such as opening up farmers’ markets away from the city centre. Recently, new opportunities were explored to market farmers produce in Upper Shillong. This should become Meghalaya’s new survival tactic. Here constant innovation is the key.